Swami Chinmayananda's meeting with Ramana Maharshi

[Guest guest]

Swami Chinmayananda was responsible for bringing the teachings of

Advaita/Vedanta to the masses, and making what had previously been

reserved for the very few, freely available to all, regardless of

caste, nationality, position in life, gender or religion.

 

Here is some of his story.

 

Swami Chinmayananda was an atheist in his youth. One day while

traveling by train, he passed by Tiruvannamalai, and was told that a

sage named, Ramana Maharshi, lived there.

 

Feeling a pull to see the Maharashi, Swami Chinmayananda decided to

go to Tiruvannamalai by the next available train.

 

He walked from the train station to the ashram in the blazing hot

sun. Arriving at the ashram, he entered in the dark hall where the

Maharshi was sitting with a few others.

 

Here is Swami Chinmayananda's first hand account of what happened,

excerpted from "Mananam," a magazine published by the Chinmaya

Mission in America in the late 70's early 80's.

 

"It so happened that I had sat down at the foot of the wooden

couch. The Maharshi suddenly opened his eyes and looked straight

into mine; I looked into his. A mere look, that was all. I felt

that the Maharshi was, in that split moment, looking deep into me —

and I was sure that he saw all my shallowness, confusions,

faithlessness, imperfections, and fears.

 

I was ashamed. But I did not want to take my eyes away from his

embracing look. Yet I could not stand that honest, kind, and

pitying look of pure love and deep wisdom. In fact, it was I who

had to look away – and the next moment, when I gazed at his face

again, he had again closed his eyes.

 

I cannot explain what happened in that one split moment. I felt

opened, cleaned, healed, and emptied! A strange feeling – fear

mixed with love, hate colored by affection, love honeyed with

shyness, joy drowned in sorrow.

 

A whirl of confusions: my atheism dropping away, but skepticism

flooding in to question, wonder, and search. My reason gave me

strength: "It is all mesmerism, my own foolishness." Thus assuring

myself, I got up and walked away.

 

But I knew. The boy who left the hall was *not* the boy who had

gone in some ten minutes before.

 

After my college days, my political work, and after my years of stay

at Uttarkashi at the feet of my master, Sri Tapovanam, I knew that

what I had gained on the Ganges banks was that which I had been

given years before by the saint of Tiruvannamalai on that hot summer

day – by a mere look."